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Delivered Retail Sales hit 26.5% in January

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Retail sales delivered to the consumer hit 26.5% of all deliverable retail sales in January 2013.  The proportion of retail sales that are delivered rose from 18.3% nearly 5 years ago and  14% a decade ago.  Current trends, which have been consistent for a number of years project that almost half of all retail sales that can be delivered will be delivered by the end of this decade. Deliverable retail sales is defined a  department store types of merchandise and are sold by retailers selling furniture & home furnishings (442), electronics & appliances (443),   clothing & accessories (448), sporting goods, hobby, book, and music  (451), general merchandise (452), and office [...] Read more »

Is the Growth of Parcel Delivery Accelerating?

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The post, Growing USPS, UPS  and FedEx Volume Is Not Just from E-commerce, used an exponential trend-line to illustrate the rapid growth in the share of deliverable retail sales that are delivered.   However, reports from retailers about the relatively recent growth of their e-commerce business raised questions about the possibility that the shift toward delivered retail sales may be accelerating.  To test this hypothesis, I plotted two exponential trend lines.  One using data from 1999 through 2007 and a second .   using the data from 2008 – 2012 The plot of the two trend lines can be seen in the following chart.   As was expected the trend for the 2008-2012 data is growing [...] Read more »

Examples of Proprietary Address at Amazon and the USPS: It’s Not Just the Format

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stuffed mailbox

The posts, Amazon Goes Head to Head with USPS with Parcel Lockers in Virginia, and Amazon Has 30 Parcel Lockers in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn asserted that Amazon parcel lockers are proprietary addresses. This raised two questions.  1) What constitutes a proprietary address and 2) Is Amazon using a unique addressing standard for its parcel lockers. What is a Proprietary Address A proprietary address is any address that limits who may send or deliver to that location.  Amazon’s parcel lockers are proprietary as only shipments shipped by Amazon and sold by Amazon or a merchant that uses fulfillment by Amazon has access to the Amazon’s Parcel Lockers. No other merchant [...] Read more »

Amazon Goes Head to Head with USPS with Parcel Lockers in Virginia

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Amazon Locker in 7-Eleven

Amazon has now introduced parcel lockers to a third metropolitan area in the United States by installing seven parcel lockers in seven 7-Eleven’s in Northern Virginia. By installing parcel lockers in the same general geographic area as the Postal Service, Amazon clearly indicates that its parcel locker delivery system is a direct competitor with delivery by the U.S. Postal Service, United Parcel Service and FedEx. While Amazon’s parcel lockers are in the same general geographic area, Amazon has made some real estate and operating/software decisions that may provide Amazon with a competitive advantage among customers that find locker delivery attractive Amazon’s Lockers are in More Up-market Zip codes than Gopost Amazon [...] Read more »

Amazon Has 30 Parcel Lockers in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn

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locker

A previous post on Amazon’s expansion of its parcel locker network understated its investment in this delivery technology in New York City. Amazon now has 30 parcel lockers in New York City and not the 20 that were reported last month. As the chart below shows, Amazon has 5 lockers in Brooklyn, 7 in Queens and 18 lockers in Manhattan including one on Roosevelt Island.  Combined with the 10 Amazon has in and around Seattle, WA and the 7 in Northern Virginia, Amazon is now far ahead of the Postal Service in implementing goPost. Parcel Lockers Create Proprietary Address and a Competitive Advantage for Amazon Amazon’s network of parcel lockers [...] Read more »

Amazon Expands Parcel Lockers to 20 Locations in New York City

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Amazon now has opened 20 parcel lockers in New York City. This includes fifteen in the borough of Manhattan, three in Queens and two in Brooklyn. In total, Amazon has now opened thirty parcel lockers with the other ten in the Seattle metropolitan area. In the eight months since Amazon installed 8 locations each in Seattle and New York, it has more than doubledaccess to this delivery technology. Amazon now has opened 20 parcel lockers in New York City. This includes fifteen in the borough of Manhattan, three in Queens and two in Brooklyn. In total, Amazon has now opened thirty parcel lockers with the other ten in the Seattle [...] Read more »

Barnes and Noble Agreement With Microsoft Could Speed Decline of Printed Flats; Increase Parcel Shipping

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barnes and Noble

Microsoft (MSFT) and Barnes and Noble (BKS)announced today that Microsoft will invest $300 million and take a 17.6% equity stake of the spin-off of the digital and college businesses of Barnes & Noble.  The investment along with the placement of a Nook Application in Windows 8 creates three major platforms for the distribution of digital content.    This provides Windows 8 tablets and smart phone an application that makes them competitive more competitive with those from Amazon and Apple.  At the same time, this action raises question about the future of the Android operating system unless equipment manufacturers tie themselves to the digital marketplaces offered by Apple, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble/Microsoft. With this [...] Read more »

UPS Conference Call Suggests USPS Should Accelerate gopost Deployment

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In its conference call, United Parcel Service (UPS) repeatedly touted the success of its UPS My Choice program. The UPS My Choice program has two features that are similar to what the Postal Service’s gopost parcel lockers will likely offer. They provide customer notification of delivery and provide delivery to a location with convenient hours when the recipient cannot be at home to accept receipt of their parcels. The UPS My Choice differs from what gopost will offer in that having parcels delivered to a UPS store requires either a $5 per package or $40 annual fee while gopost will more than likely be a free service. UPS has offered UPS [...] Read more »

Who failed, Amazon or the USPS?

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Note:  A number of readers identified a serious error in the original version of this post.  The post has been modified to reflect a better understanding of why the Point of Sale System limited the products that the clerk offered to Mr. Jarvis. 1/12/2012 17:47 Jeff Jarvis, an influential social media evangelist and author of the Buzz Machine, had a problem. He bought a book from Amazon and wanted to return it. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? However, when he went to the Postal Service, he was told his only option was Express Mail, the most expensive service the Postal Service offered. So what did he do? He took the parcel and [...] Read more »

A Close Up Look at gopost

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The gopost parcel lockers appear all but ready for live customer tests. Viewing one in person clearly showed to me how a customer thinking of using a gopost would interact and how it would work for both able and disabled individualsm, as well as adults of a full range of heights. What a Customer First Sees A customer interested in using gopost will have no trouble finding it.  The bright red and blue colors make it stand out, just like Redbox and Blockbuster kiosks do.    The use of color focuses the consumers attention right where they have to go, the center console. Given that it is both bright red and stands out a [...] Read more »